1 st Grade, Reading Unit 5: Meaningful Messages

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1 1 st Grade, Reading Unit 5: Meaningful Messages In this 25 day unit (20 teaching points + 5 re-teach days), first graders will bring everything together that they ve learned so far this year about story elements, characters, re-telling, and comprehension strategies to develop a deeper understanding of story. Their thinking about stories big ideas will evolve from discussing general themes in books previously read to determining the lesson a character learned to ultimately finding support for central messages with text evidence. The development of this unit is based on two resources: Debbie Miller s Reading with Meaning, Chapter 7 Synthesizing Information, and Ridgefield, CT s first grade unit, Readers Think and Talk About Big Ideas in Books (see link below). Prior to the unit, books should be gathered and organized in bins by general themes (friends, family, school, pets, community, me /being yourself, etc.). The beginning of the unit also relies on fables because of the inclusion of the explicit moral/lesson in each story (fable suggestions and links are included below). Numerous graphic organizers are recommended for both teacher modeling with mentor texts and student completion with their just right books. Many of the organizers in the latter part of the unit are based on a Kevin Henkes study; his books can be used as mentor texts, however you may also use other favorite books that contain characters throughout a series of stories. (The book list from Unit 4 and the thematic book list link below are other suggested resources.) The unit s pre- and post-assessment is a re-telling scored with the TCRWP rubric. The focus on the Story Grammar marker and retelling to a deeper level in Bend 1 and a more sophisticated understanding of characters and stories developed by the end of this unit should contribute to growth in re-telling, as last measured in Unit 2. Below is a suggested progression of teaching points that are aligned vertically across grade levels and with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The expectation is that teachers will adapt the teaching points and pace according to the needs of their students. The bends (areas of focus) for the unit are as follows: Bend 1: Readers build a deeper understanding of the story as they read (Teaching points 1-7) In this first bend, students will revisit retelling with the use of Story Grammar Marker (available on both the VPS website and the coaching connection website Grade 1, Unit 5). Students retelling should be brought to a higher level through teacher modeling. As the Ridgefield unit describes, A good retelling includes not just the characters names, where they are, and a brief sequential summary of what they do. It includes descriptions of the characters based on what the students learn from the pictures, the characters actions and words, and their own reactions to and inferences about the characters. Students should be able to describe the relationships between characters because those relationships usually have an impact on the storyline. Students should be able to recognize if the relationship that the character has with the setting has importance in how the story unfolds.

2 Bend 2: Readers explain their thinking about big ideas (central message/theme) (Teaching points 8-13) During this bend students are given strategies to determine what is important to pay attention to as they read. By determining how characters react to events, identifying the turning point of the story, and considering how all the important information fits together, students will begin to develop an understanding of the big idea (central message/lesson) and be able to find evidence to support their thinking. Students should use sticky notes to assist them in gathering this information and completing the appropriate graphic organizers. Bend 3: Readers synthesize information in the books they read (Teaching points 14-20) This bend goes even deeper as students take all of their thinking about a story and begin to synthesize the information to develop new ideas about themselves and the world around them, both independently and with partners. The unit ends with students creating a definition of synthesis, as a final share of their reading journey (see pages of Reading with Meaning for examples of student work). Resources/Suggestions: Reading with Meaning Chapter 11 Synthesizing Information by Debbie Miller (Ridgefield, CT April unit click on the Grade 1 April Big Ideas file) Graphic organizers the graphic organizers that are specific to this unit can be found on the Instructional Coaching Resources for Elementary Teachers link on the VPS website under the Reading tab Grade 1 Unit 5. Book Lists/Suggestions supporting the unit: Fables: The Lion and the Mouse The Tortoise and the Hare The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Fox and the Grapes The Dog in the Manger The Goose and the Golden Eggs The Wolf in Sheep s Clothing The Maid and the Milk Pail Fable links:

3 Thematic book list link: aits%20suggested%20book%20lists.pdf Standards: Priority: RL.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. L.4a* Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. L.5c* Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at home that are cozy). L.5d* Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings. Supporting: RL.1 RL.4 RI.8 RL.9 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text. Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories. *Note: Language standards are not explicitly included in the teaching points. These should be embedded in other parts of the balanced literacy block.

4 Writing Unit 5: From Scenes to Series Writing Fiction by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christine Holley Grade 1 Unit 4 Narrative In this unit, students will focus on writing realistic fiction stories in a series through the process of creating a pretend character, giving that character adventures in more than one booklet, elaborating and revising across books, and finally, creating a boxed set of their stories. (From Scenes to Series p. vi) Standards: Priority: W.3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. W.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of howto books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions). L.1a L.1b L.1g Print all upper and lowercase letters. Use common, proper, and possessive nouns. Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because) Supporting: W.6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. W.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. L.1f Use frequently occurring adjectives. L.1h L.1j Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives). Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts

5 Bend 1: Readers build a deeper understanding of the story as they read Introduce the new unit: Meaningful Messages is thinking and talking about the Big Idea of a story. Review books read in the previous unit and discuss the general themes of some of these stories (friendship, family, school, pets,...). Continue discussing the books/general themes from the previous unit. Introduce how the book bins are organized. Readers understand a story more deeply by retelling it thinking about the characters, setting, important events, problem/solution. (Use Map It! organizer/ Story Grammar Marker (chart) to discuss story structure as a tool for re-telling.) Readers understand a story more deeply by making inferences about why things are happening. (Continue to use Story Grammar Marker. Demonstrate the objective with fables, showing children how readers extend their literal synthesis to an inferential one see Debbie Miller s Reading with Meaning, pp ) Readers understand a story more deeply when they confirm their inferences by finding supporting evidence from the text. (Again, continue to use Story Grammar Marker and fables.) 1 Readers may think more deeply about a story by changing their thinking as they continue to read (e.g., I was thinking... but now I am thinking because ). Use a favorite fable with a strong lesson (see Reading with Meaning pp ) and include the new thinking in a retelling; 2 day lesson Day Readers may think more deeply about a story by changing their thinking as they continue to read (e.g., I was thinking... but now I am thinking because ). Use a favorite fable with a strong lesson (see Reading with Meaning pp ) and include the new thinking in a retelling; 2 day lesson Day Bend 2: Readers explain their thinking about big ideas (central message/theme) Readers determine important information by noting the events to which characters react. This helps us figure out the author s message. Complete the anchor chart skeleton together and the life lesson flip book for the mentor text; 2 day lesson - Day Repeat yesterday s lesson, reading another text by the same author. Students apply the strategy independently in their individual flip books with their just right books; 2 day lesson Day Readers determine important information in their books by noticing which events lead to a turning point. Model with Wemberly Worried if using Kevin Henkes books or another mentor text with an obvious turning point. What was the turning point? What lesson was learned? (Use a turning point graphic organizer from the Coaching Connection website Unit 5.) 10

6 Readers understand the central message or lesson by asking themselves What does all the important pieces information have in common? What did I learn? Model with Lily s Purple Plastic Purse or other mentor text and the life lesson flip book. Readers demonstrate an understanding of the central message by coming up with their own solution to the problem their character faces. Model with Weekend with Wendall or other mentor text. If you were the character, how would you solve the problem? Use Solutions for organizer. Readers find support for big ideas/central messages with text evidence. Use What s the Big Idea? organizer and sticky notes. Bend 3: Readers synthesize information in the books they read Readers develop even deeper big ideas from a book by asking themselves, what does that tell me about (myself, people, life) in general? Readers recognize that books sometimes make them think about things in a new way. 11 Readers understand that each reader will develop his or her own ideas from the same book and it s ok if their thinking is different Readers may add to/revise their thinking about big ideas when they hear their partner s thinking Readers monitor overall meaning, important concepts, and themes as they read, understanding that their thinking evolves in the process. Model by recording the evolution of your thinking (synthesis of the text) on a synthesizing graphic organizer with a mentor text (D. Miller, p. 160). (This teaching point builds off of Days 6 and 7, with a deeper understanding of the big idea at this point.) Readers prepare to discuss how their thinking about reading changed over the unit by reviewing their graphic organizers and a by creating a definition of synthesis as included in the Synthesizing Information chapter in Reading with Meaning CELEBRATION Students may share their definitions of synthesis or other learning from the unit. 20

7 Anchor chart suggestions: